Despite improvements in hand hygiene, stricter compliance requirements, and efforts to optimize isolation practices, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are losing the war on nosocomial or Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). A hospital acquired infection is an infection acquired in a hospital or other healthcare facility by a patient admitted for some reason other than that specific infection. Hospital acquired infections may include infections appearing 48 hours or more after hospital admission or within 30 days after discharge. They may also include infections due to transmission from colonized healthcare workers, or occupational exposure to infection among staff of the facility. Although the majority of hospital acquired infections are preventable, sadly their incidence has only increased.
Hospital acquired infections have become more rampant as antibiotic resistance spreads. Many factors contribute to the increased incidence of hospital acquired infections among hospital patients. For example, hospitals house large numbers of people who are sick and therefore have weakened immune systems. Medical staff move from patient to patient and see many patients a day, providing a way for pathogens to spread. Research indicates that hand hygiene practices are followed only 40% of the time by healthcare workers, even after exhaustive process improvements and training efforts. Many medical procedures, such as surgery, injections and other invasive procedures bypass the body's natural protective barriers, providing entry points for pathogens. The wide-spread use of antibiotics has contributed to the emergence of resistant strains of microorganisms in healthcare facilities and well as in the community.
Compliance with hand hygiene guidelines is considered the most effective action health care workers can take to reduce pathogen transmission in health care settings. Despite this, hand hygiene compliance remains low, and improvement efforts tend to lack sustainability.